Visual Aids

The specific audience of my visual presentation was my classmates. My audience is very unique because of the fact that they are all international students studying in the University of Arizona. Also, they all use internet and computer technologies for the purpose of education. This related to the topic I presented which makes both my audience and the argument very unique.

Some learn better through one sense than another. Some learn best through visual approaches, some through tactile approach and others through auditory approaches, on the other hand some learn through a combination of the two. The use of visual stimulation is essential to learning because it is necessary for understanding as imagery is what helps individuals comprehend and remember material (Stoffers 2011). Stoffers further points out that there are a variety of ways teachers can utilize visual aids in the classroom. The mode of presentation can vary from traditional chalkboards and whiteboards to bulletin boards to PowerPoint and even to new technologies like the interactive whiteboard (also referred to as the Smart board). Visual aids can improve learning up to 400% (Stein 2009). This means teachers must put careful thought into building interactive and effective visual aids to help their

A variety of communication media can be considered when planning to produce a presentation, for example verbal communication and written communication, each type of communication media has its advantages and limitations. When developing my presentation I decided to use both verbal and written communication, although both communication methods were used I had to ensure that they were used in the correct quantities. To keep my presentation engaging I tried to use as much visual representation as possible limiting the amount of text per slide. I chose to use PowerPoint because of its combination of written and verbal communication (not to mention the cost effectiveness of choosing PowerPoint and simplistic interface); the written aspects included the text on the slides, screenshots and images. The screenshots proved particularly useful as they was of the actual database used in the daily running of the Apprenticeships Store, once paired with the demonstration of inputting data into the database it ensured greater understanding due to more practical learning as opposed to theoretical learning. More detail was provided in my handouts ensuring I didn’t give too much information at once and this allowed the audience to document any supplementary information I said during the presentation, by speaking and interpreting what was on the slides ensured the presentation remained fluid and

A slideshow or power point presentation can create a visual representation for teaching about similarities and differences between adjectives used to describe people. Or showing pictures of characters in a novel will help the students put an image to a written discretion that may not have been able to create with word only. This can also be used for other aspect within a novel like a setting, plot, themes, and symbols to meet the language objectives and the core content objectives.

Scott McCloud’s graphic essay “Show & Tell” demonstrates how the relationship between pictures and words can be used to convey a message efficiently. By showing many visual examples of the different ways images and words can be used together, McCloud establishes that information is easier to interpret when paired with visual aid. By also pointing out that people are naturally inclined to show something visually as means of explaining, McCloud demonstrates his main point: the combination of words and images is very effective in conveying a message.

A PowerPoint presentation is a form of a slide show that can be of much benefit to the aging population because this feature can help with memory and cognition. An elderly individual can fail to recognize simple daily tasks, which is brought on by age cognition disability. Presentations for the aging population are helpful, as some of the pictures illustrated can remind an elderly individual on how to complete a simple task such as sweeping, cooking, and so forth.

Read Ch. 10, “Using Visual Aids in Technical Communication,” of Technical Communication Process and Product.

Both words and images are important in our life. A successful speech depends on the text and images. As the conference of apple products, they are always having a good speech with pictures and words for their products. Also for me, if I read a book, I will say the text always feel boring for me. I prefer to choose a book with some pictures inside that makes text quicker to attract the attention of a person. The textbook says, “Sometimes images can be more powerful than words at reaching audiences” (Christine L. Alfano & Alyssa J. O’Brien

While a good presentation can deliver the insights of a topic and allows the audience to clearly understand a textual topic in a visual and more memorable way, a bad presentation can also make the audience more confused for even the things that they already know. Unlike how most people think, presentation is not all about the quality of the contents of the presentation but it greatly depends on aspects such as presenter’s confidence, quality of slides, and speaker’s methods and preparation for that particular topic. The most complicated and boring topics can seem so interesting by the audience,

Lucianne Walkovicz used several examples of her own advice from her article “A Non Talk on Giving Talks” in her talk about starlight. Her use of empathy in telling the audience her story of her first sight of starlight as well as using images intended to evoke emotion captivated her audience not only in the beginning but also throughout her talk. In her article “A Non Talk on Giving Talks” she stresses to not make wordy slides, for this causes the audience to choose between listening to the speaker and reading the slide. During her presentation, she did not use words but instead used images to keep the audience’s attention while she spoke. Another rule she stressed in her article was to not use flashy slides or lots of animations. None of

Ryan, W. (2012). Visual literacy: Learning to see. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/

Even though, Walker’s presentation was very interesting and empowering, there was one thing that lessened its purpose and it was his visual aid that was very distracting while he was speaking. The visual aid was a video with audio playing in the background as Walker was speaking. This took away from Walker as a speaker because the entire audience wanted to

I know a lot of people who personally hate power-points and would prefer to not use them in favorite of notecards. I personally have a distain for using notecards as I feel I would just look off them the entire time. However, I can not look off a giant power-point if everyone else listening to my speech could see it too. With a power-point it forces me to learn what I am going to say and have more in my head than what is on the power-point. I feel my audience understands what I am trying to give a speech about, but I am far from perfect and these are some things I need to work on my presentation

Having a great deal of visuals and options to access them presents many resounding benefits to a person. To begin, when needing to visually represent something all someone needs to do is a quick search of the keywords on a search engine, granting them access to countless visuals to demonstrate what they are trying to represent. Additionally, relating primarily to photographs, we see the implementation of many different methods to convey a message or viewpoint utilizing photographic images as the visual. Through the use of photographs, we have developed many ways to portray given messages. For example, in the text it says, “photographic images are used in many examples of visual storytelling, including advertising, annual reports, photo essays, documentary, photo narrative, slide shows, and portraiture.” (Ryan, 2012). Another effect of the vast availability of

Our presentation slides focuses more on pictures, charts and key-points for visual aid. By keeping the slides simple, audiences can focus more on the speaker. The videos uploaded by the Centre for English Language Communication department tell us our weaknesses which we do not realize by ourselves. Reflecting on my first and second presentation through videos and feedbacks from Ms. Christine has helped me